cómo engrupir a una gringa

jejeje.

So I was alerted by one of my readers that while I listed how to alienate AND win over Chileans, I only listed how to alienate a gringo and not how to win one over. My reader further expressed that he wasn't interested in how to win over gringos, but would actually like some advice on cómo engrupir a una gringa. Así ha nacido este post.

So here goes:

First, what not to do: NO HAGAS ESTO
1) plis porfavor, por el amor de dios, no seas ese weon latero, mata-onda que se acerca a la gringa en la fiesta (o donde sea) y empieza a pelar a Chile y decir que vale callampa. Weon, no vay a llegar a ningún lado. A lo más la gringuita, te va a escuchar tu opinión, decir, "perrrou a mii me guste Chiile. Pourrr qué nou te guusta?" Después le vay a dejar chata, y hará todo lo posible para no hablar más con vos, pero sin mandarte a la cresta, cosa que las gringas encuentran demasiado fuerte. La verdad es que no son tantos los weones que haga esto, pero lamentablemente, las gringas somos una suerte de imán para este weón latero. Ugh. Seguramente porque no le mandamos a la mierda al tiro y le soportamos mucho más de lo que debemos. Gringas, si encuentran a este weón, digale que en realidad tiene toda la razón, que Chile vale callampa, que te vay de acá luego, y anda a hablar con alguien que valga la pena.

Ahora unos consejos de qué hacer:

1) Be authentic. Sé auténtico.
2) Hazle reir!! ;)
3) Averigua lo que le gusta, y invítale a pasear.

(Personalmente, después de vivir 6 meses en Chile, había conocido una cachada de gente carreteando. Es una buena manera para conocer gente, pero la verdad es que me empezaba a preguntar si los chilenos hacen algo a parte de carretear. (Ahora sé que sí.) Aunque es entretenido, el carrete me tenía chata, y un pelín acolica.) Lo único que quería era que me invitaran (hombre o mujer) a andar en bicicleta, ir a la playa, hacer trekking en el cerro la campana, tomar un cafecito, surfear, nadar, la wea que fuera!!!

4) Si quedas con la chiquilla, trata de llegar a la hora y no la tiras para la cola.

5) Escúchala. Anímate para otro tipo de conversación más analítica y seria, pero tambien webéala un poco en buena onda como cualquier chileno de corazón!!

6) Trata de decir lo que realmente piensas, sin tanto susto de caer mal por contradecir lo que ella dice. Quizas a diferencia del chileno promedio?, somos buenas para analizar nuestros pensamientos y compararlos con pensamientos distintos. Encontramos interesante cuando alguien tiene otro punto de vista, y puede explicar porqué piensa así, a pesar de que esa persona cree algo totalmente distinto a lo que creemos nosotras. Conversaciones interesantes extenderán el tiempo que ella quiere estar contigo y creerán un interés para juntarse contigo de nuevo.

7) Corrige su español, please!!!! Los essspañoles de essspaña son secos para corregirnos, no sé porque los chilenos no lo hacen tambien :( A lo mejor para no caer mal? Puess, tío, ess la osstia que te corrigen el esspañol.

Bueno, esos son algunos consejos para empezar. Seguiré pensando en el tema a ver qué más se me ocurre decir.

En fin, les dejo con unas palabras sabias de calle 13, Atrevetetetetetete! ;)

Ah, y evita de webear a las casadas. Por lo general no estamos ni allí con cagar a nuestros esposos!!! ;)

How to alienate a gring@.

Following Abeja's lead, I'm going to make a list of a few things that alienate a gring@- of the American variety. I'm sure there are plenty, but here's a small list that came to my mind:

1) Walk slowly on the sidewalks. Gringos always complain about Chileans walking slow and blocking their way. I find it annoying sometimes (when I'm in a hurry), but I'm a pretty slow walker, so I'm probably one of the people who other gringos find annoying ;)

2) Charge gringos "the gring@ price." Especially if they've lived in Chile for a while.

3) Provide HORRIBLE customer service. If the gring@ complains, tell them to go somewhere else to buy what they need. hehehehe

4) Make racist or classist remarks.

5) Be unfriendly.

6) Misunderstand them or make it clear you didn't listen to them when you respond to what they've said. -- Like for example, when a gringa/o lets you know they are vegetarian and that they don't eat red meat, chicken, turkey, fish, or any type of animal cadaver, offer them the vegetarian plate, chicken with rice. ;)

7) Tirales pa' la cola. Make plans with them and then don't arrive. Actually this one alienates lots of punctual Chileans too.

Those are a few ideas that came to my mind offhand. There are plenty more.

How to alienate/win over a Chilean

I must say, you guys had some hilarious comments on how to alienate Chileans. Sooooo true. First, a few ways to alienate a Chilean:

• Tell them you're vegan or vegetarian, hopefully at a barbecue.
• When you want them to pass you the bottle of Coke, ask them to pass you the azúcar con agua, color caramelo (the caramel-colored watery sugar.)
• Tell them you don't really like tennis, and that Massu and Gonzalez aren't that good anyway.
• When you go out with your friends, instead of ordering a beer or a pisco sour, order mineral water. All night.

Now several ways to win them over:

• Tell them you love Chile and speak positively about their country. Obviously! hehehe
• Use lots of chilenismos. I LOVE language, and eat up new expressions. (I've taken a six-month break from my Chilenis blog, though I've started again-sort of.) I don't know that there's anything more flattering and humorous for Chileans than to see their culture spread to foreigners. Instead of "Esta wea es para el pico" "Ehsta whea ehs paa el piicou". Oh, and if you really want to blow them away, teach them a chilenismo they don't know. I find the word "lumami" is a bit uncommon here. Some, but not all, Chileans know it.
• Ask your suegra (or other Chilean friends who like to cook) for their recipes, onda porotos grandos, pastel de choclo, pescado al vapor, etc. Talk about cooking with older Chilean women, and let them know how the recipes they gave you worked out.
• If speaking with a chileno "culto" (~highbrow), mention the poets Vicente Huidobro, Pablo de Rokha, Gabriela Mistral's prose (vs her poetry), the movie Tony Manero, etc. They'll be surprised you didn't choose to talk about Pablo Neruda. Or tell them about a Chilean literary figure that they've never heard about like Teresa Wilms Montt.
• With some types of Chilean women, who tend to ignore you on purpose, ignore back. It really irks them and makes them interested in you. Obviously, if they are ignoring you on purpose, they probably will never be a fun friend to have. Fun Chileans usually don't ignore you, and may be interested in what you are like, since you're a foreigner.
• Converse as they do, focusing as much on the speaker as on the topic of conversation. Be sure to tease (webear) the speaker as much as possible.

Other posts on "how to alienate a Chilean":
Don't call me gringa
Cachando Chile
Annje
La Gringuita Diaries
NY Gringa Expat
Abby's Line

Immigrant Visa: DCF from Chile

Or how to get a green card for your Chilean spouse, through the U.S. Embassy in Chile.

Caveat Lector: these are some pointers on how to go about the visa process. What worked for me or someone else may or may not work for you. The information I provide can change and its best to be in contact with the embassy if you are thinking of doing DCF to make sure the rules haven't changed. Getting my spouse's visa was a little like playing "Calvinball", from Calvin & Hobbes. Or like being the protagonist of Dr. Seuss's "Oh! The Places You'll Go!", complete with a total downer. But as Dr. Seuss says, success is 98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.

First off, "DCF" or "Direct Consular Filing" is slang, and not used by the embassy or immigration. It means to file your petition directly to the U.S. embassy in the country you are living rather than going through USCIS. I believe they call it an "immigrant visa petition". DCF is used on the visa forums however, so its a good term to know.

The visa I petitioned for for my husband was CR1, which is a 10 year residency visa with a condition that must be taken off two years after entering the States. The condition is for people who get permanent residency before they've been married for 2 years. (in the case of DCF, they'll be entering the country on a CR1 visa). Read more here.

That said. First you must qualify to apply. At the embassy, V was told that to qualify for direct consular filing in Chile, I (the U.S. Citizen) had to have any (chilean) visa that's not a tourist visa and have lived in Chile for six months with said visa. I wonder if you can have a student visa, though?)

If you are doing DCF from Chile, for a spouse start here.
You go to the embassy with the listed documents filled out and you turn in the petition for your foreign spouse.

If they accept your petition, they'll give you some forms, like for example:

• forms for your spouse's medical examination
• the DS-230 (more biographical information, the applicant (the foreign spouse) must fill this out)
• I-864
  
• perhaps something else that I've since forgotten?
  

Then we got a letter in the mail saying that our visa interview was in a month or so. My husband went to the doctor a couple weeks before the interview. The morning before the interview in the embassy, he had to stop by the doctor's office and pick up the results of his tests to bring with him to the embassy.

His visa was approved.

I turned in the I-130 on September 9th, and soon after (2-4 weeks?) I received a letter in the mail with the date for the final interview, which was November 4th. I accompanied V to the interview, but that wasn't necessary. At the interview, we were told the visa was approved, and V's passport arrived the following week. So, once my petition was accepted, it was a fast process.

Also, V has six months to enter the U.S. on his CR1 visa from the date of approval, which means, you should bear in mind when you want to arrive in the States before petitioning the visa.

Helpful resources:
U.S. Embassy Chile: Immigration Visas
British Expats: USA: Marriage-Based Visas
Visa Journey : wikis are good, term definitions as well, there's tons of information on visa journey. I registered and tried to post a couple times and it never worked. So I posted on britishexpats and got answers to my questions there. They answered quickly and were super helpful.

A couple useful glossaries:
Here's a glossary of Immigration Terms and Abbreviations.
Here's a second Immigration Glossary.

Forms you may need:
Check USCIS website for most updated version.

Forms for the petition:
I-130
G-325A

For the final interview
I-864
I-864A (for household members of your "domicile")
DS-230
Medical forms filled out by doctor

FAQs - I'll do a future post that will answer the following questions:
What is domicile and how do I show that the USA is my country of domicile?
How do I sponsor my spouse? (using the I-864)

On the British Expat forums one man compares going through the visa process to planning a wedding, because your whole future depends on the outcome of ONE event. He calls these people working on immigrant visa paperwork "immigrant zombies" and compares them to bridezillas. hahhahaha. Touché. I definitely had my "immigrant zombie" moments!

Hope this is useful for some of you out there. I'm not an expert. If you want expert advice hire an immigration lawyer. They run $3000-$5000 per case, at least that is what I was quoted. I didn't end up hiring one; our case was too simple to pay $3000.

You can check out visa journey and britexpats for free. That's what I did.

And I was worried how we would surf when living in Minnesota...silly me

hahahahaahhaha Is Duluth, Minnesota the new Surf City, U.S.A?
Surfing the Big Lake

Lake Superior:





And perhaps we can apply this strategy to the Mississippi:

"A falta de pan, buenas son las tortas,"

Elvis told me.

On Saturday, V and I went to La Boca in Con-Con to surf for a few hours. We got there earlier than usual (like 10:30am) because V'd been told the surf shop would start opening earlier as summer approaches. It was still closed upon our arrival and after a few unanswered phone calls to the employees, we decided to walk down the beach and check out our rental options. We stopped by the next surf shop and they wanted to charge 7.000 pesos for each board. We had about 12.000 pesos between the two of us, so that didn't fly. (The other surf shop charges us 5.000 for each board.)

So we continued walking down the beach, towards what looked like it could be an open-air rental shop, set up between two SUVs. As we approach, we don't see any boards or wetsuits, and are about to change direction when a guy sitting on one of the SUVs starts waving at us. I ask V who it is and he hasn't a clue. Walking towards the guy, V gets a better look at his jeep and recognizing the vehicle, says, "It's Elvis." "No way!!" We only know one Elvis in Chile and he's from Pichilemu, our first surf instructor. We chat with Elvis a little. He was there with several Pichilemu students participating in a surf competition. He asked if we came to surf, and we replied that we had, but that the surf shop hadn't opened yet, so we were chilling meanwhile. "My biggest board is a 6'9 he tells me, do you want to borrow it?" To which I replied, bueno!

The board was featherlight, absolutely gorgeous, perfectly waxed, sleak, and didn't have one nick. I put my wetsuit on and grabbed the board. Wading into the ocean I remembered the last time I rented a board from Elvis in Pichilemu, when I came out of the water, there was a huge gouge in it, that I couldn't remember causing. And that board was a bit of a beater, this one was a freaking Mercedes of surfboards. I pushed that thought aside and studied the waves to figure out which one to surf. They were freaking huge, so I decided to mostly surf the espuma (foam?). (This is what is created when the waves break.) The first three times I try to catch the espuma, I crash as I'm still getting used to the shorter, narrower board, a far cry from the tanks I am used to surfing on. Finally, I get used to the board and absolutely fall in love with it. I was even able to surf a few medium-sized waves (rather than just espuma). The board was so easy to maneuver and responded really well to my movements. My thoughts changed from "I hope I don't gouge the board" to "Estos culiados me van a tener que sacar del mar, porque me enamoré y no salgo más." And then I went to ride a bigger wave and don't stand up quick enough or something. I feel myself losing control. The next thing I know I've nose-dived the board into the ocean bottom and the ocean is spinning me around like a piece of clothing in a washing machine. When I surface, I grab the really expensive board that was lent to me, to look it over for gouges. I didn't find any, thank god, and duly returned the board with a smile a mile long, after surfing one last wave. V and I then talked of going to Pichilemu this summer, and said goodbye to Elvis and crew.

The rental shop was open for business and we rented a couple of tanks to surf on and enjoyed ourselves all the same.

Afinando el español

To find the perfect definition/translation English-Spanish/Spanish-English:

1) I look it up in wordreference, and see if there are any discussions about it, i.e. "cream of tartar", or squirrel/chipmunk (ardilla listada). And at this link, borgonyon explains "Estoy de acuerdo con fenix, se le puede llamar "ardillita" en el mismo sentido que llamamos "chinos" a todos los asiáticos, más como un nombre genérico." Beautiful! ;)

2) If I want to know whether the word is Chilean or not (I've lost all perspective), I look in up in the DRAE.

3) If it's a new word or something I don't understand well, often I'll look it up in the drae, or click on the "Spanish definition" in word reference. Often, a word that is more commonly used in Spanish will have a crappy English translation, or it will have one translation when there are really like 5. This is where it's good to read the definition in Spanish.

4) Also, if there are different translations for the same word like "rebuscado" can be translated as "far-fetched", "round-about", "overcomplicated", etc., obviously it's good to understand the different meanings related to different contexts, especially when the different words are in the non-native language. Again, I'll often look up the Spanish definition of each of these words.

5) If it's a complicated thing, a concept, a medical condition, or something that might benefit from a look at wikipedia, I go there next. For instance to have another look at the squirrel/chipmunk difference, here are some links to wikipedia (this was actually more complicated than I'd imagined because there are a ton of different squirrel articles in wikipedia.):

Tree squirrel - this is the squirrel I see in Minnesota. Once I look it up in English, I then click on "Español" to see what the wikipedistas have decided is the translation. Interestingly, there is no link to Español for this one.

Squirrel (in general) - This one doesn't have the Español link either, but it does have one in Esperanto and another in Gallego.

Eastern Gray Squirrel - I believe this one inhabits Minnesota as well. Finally, I find an article with a link to the Spanish article on the sciurus carolinesis (ardilla).

Then, the moment of truth as I look up chipmunk in wikipedia. I click on the Spanish link and find tamias minimus, also called the "ardilla rayada".

So Lydia wasn't far off explaining this difference to her students, at least in relation to wikipedia. ;)

Edited Dec. 4
Ah and 6) Often I'll google expressions in both Spanish and English. Especially for my chilensis blog because sometimes the words aren't super common and appear in neither dictionaries nor wikipedia.

This is my translation method, that mostly works, except when there is no translation, like for the word "vogueing" for example. But then, at least we know there is no translation.

"Tengo el poto como colador"

Translation: "My ass is acting like a colander."

**Note: my ass isn't acting as a colander at this minute, I'm just posting this as a "travel tip"

Many of us gringos in Chilito have gotten food poisoning from time to time. It's to be expected. Whether the Augustian changes in weather screw you over, or you eat a typical Chilean delicacy sold in the street: canine shish-ka-bob, or you have fried fish at a market on a Sunday afternoon, or you ate the wrong piece of fruit, or your once (tea) the evening before consisted of quiche and beer, or you drank too much water right after arriving to Chile and before your body was acclimated, we all end up in the same place: at the porcelain throne.

It's a painful experience, your stomach & intestines seem to grow a mind of there own. Some of us experience this time and again, unfortunately. But we will get through. Hang in there. Have someone buy you some gatorade, and divide your time wisely between the bathroom and the bed. If the vomiting doesn't ease off, and your ass doesn't stop acting as a colander in a few hours, it's time to go to the emergency room. I've got the magic pill that has kept me from the emergency room at least twice now. And some of you may have it too. It's Entero Micinovo (one of the few drugs in Chile that you need a prescription for, hehehe). A WONDER DRUG to stop the "churi-churi" as Don V (the one in the middle) calls it. hehehe. It was prescribed the first time I went to the ER at the Clinica Alemana in Valpo. And if you take it when you don't have the churi-churi, you'll probably be constipated for a month.

One of the sucky consequences of food poisoning is the sensitive stomach afterward. For the next week you have to watch what you eat and your diet will resemble this:

breakfast: galletas de agua con quesillo (crackers and tasteless "cheese")
té (tea)

lunch: sopa de pollo y arroz (chicken and rice soup)

dinner: galletas de agua con quesillo
té

It's an effective way to lose 5+ pounds in one week. Though I would prefer other, less painful, dieting possibilities to this one.

**If I find the "menu" or list of food that the Clinica Alemana recommended I eat for two weeks after being sick, I will post it here, as I don't doubt it will be useful to some other poor gring@.

Edit February 13th: Okis, so I didn't find the "regimen dietetico" from the Clinica Alemana, but I did find one from Integramedica. Here goes:

bebidas sin cola, agua sin gas
té, aguas de hierbas, matico, menta manzanilla
gatorade, chamyto
galletas de agua y de chuño
pollo, pavo y arroz cocido, fideos cocidos
jaleas, compotas
manzanas y peras cocidas (el auga en que fueron preparadas)
evitar alimentos en conserva (enlatados, en cajas, en frascos)
evitar salsas
no fumar.

Anyhoo, this is just one of the realities of living in the "third world".

I've just come across my "regimen blando sin residuos" from the Clinica Alemana de Valpo:

Alimentos permitidos:
quesillo o queso fresco
carne de vacuno sin grasa (posta, lomo liso, asiento, etc.)
pollo sin grasa y sin cuero
pescado fresco cocido al horno o a la olla (merluza, congrio)
clara de huevo
fideos cocidos
arroz cocido, salado o dulce con canela
galletas de agua, soda o chuño
azúcar, en cantidad moderada
jalea
chuño o maicena en agua
aceite crudo agregado al momento de servir los alimentos
aliños; solo sal, limón, canela, óregano
bebidas: té simple, auga mineral sin gas, coca-cola sin gas, infusiones de hierba antiespasmódicas (anís, manzanilla), agua de arroz con canela

Ejemplo de Minuta:
desayuno: té puro y 4 galletas de soda con quesillo

colación: maicena en agua con canela y caramelo

almuerzo: sopa de posta con fideos cabello
pollo cocido con arroz blanco
jalea y 2 galletas de soda o agua

once: chuño en agua, 4 galletas de agua con quesillo

cena: sopa de pollo con arroz
posta molida con fideos cocidos
jalea y 2 galletas de agua

R.I.P., and resurrected as of Aug. 26th

RIP to my fave coa/chilensis dictionary : ( : ( Here's what's left of this dictionary that once had more than 10,000 Chilean words and expressions defined.

SUCK! Or perhaps this should be in Chilensis. Puta la wea por la cresta!!!! Pero CÓMO EN MIERA?!?!? To do this post really well, I should really re-subtitle the climatical scene to La Caída (Der Untergang), but that seems like a lot of work so I'm just going to patear la perra a little bit and get on with my morning, ya que el mejor diccionario del internet se fue completamente a la xuxa. Ya no sé dónde voy a buscar los significados de toas las chuchás que escucho en la conversación cotidiana acá en Chile. como la corneta la wea del diccionario. cagó. puuuuuta. internet reculiao.

Edit August 26th: Okay it's back. Yay!

Another encounter with a mime

I was heading to lunch at the little vega today. Walking, absorbed by my thoughts, I see I'm approaching two mimes, but I'm already 5 feet away when I realize this. Their "stage" is like 10 meters wide and 20 long and I'm very much on the stage with a whole crowd of onlookers watching to see how these mimes will huebearme (mess with me). Huebeando a la gente is the Chilean National Pastime, quite a fun one, when you aren't the object of the webeo.

Nothing left to do but play along. So one of them took me by the elbow, walking with me as a gentlemenly mime, then he took me by the hand. And then he stopped and exaggeratedly admired my butt. Here I saw my entrance, and I slapped him back side the head, and kept walking. Fortunately, they didn't follow me. But just as I get offstage, I think, "I should have gotten out my cellphone and taken a photo with the guy". Doh!

Check out these nifty fashion-related objects

I so want one of these, called a "trip clip" and tried to order one, but it didn't work. Which is probably better because my Chilenized ego is telling me I could sooo make one for sooo much cheaper. It may just involve a trip to Galeria Rosas. If I do manage to make one that works, I will be selling them. Hehehehe. I'll keep you posted.

This is how you use it. And they could totally try to make these be styling, embedding them with rhinestones or something.


Love these. They are sooo Cute!! I happen to have some pretty beat-up angora that may find a new end as soon as I buy my sewing machine. Because upcycling is where it's at.

So there is an English library in downtown Santiago, sort of

In an earlier post, I said downtown Santiago needs its very own English libaray. I was told that the "biblioredes" from the metro has a small collection of books in English at the Plaza de Armas metro stop. Miiiiiiitsch! So I donated a book in English, The DaVinci Code. I handed it in at Los Heroes and they will take care of getting it to Plaza de Armas. And I definitely will be checking out the English books there at some undesignated moment in the future. This should be interesting.

Edit July 26: So I went to the Plaza de Armas bibliored the other day and the only books they had in English were a couple of photography books. Mine had yet to arrive.

My map of downtown Santiago

Traveling/and planning trips sure has changed in some ways with the internet. Facebook, peoples maps, blogs, google and other internet tools are excellent means for planning your travels.

I started to read this article, but have yet to finish because I got sidetracked with one of his piece's of advice.

I got to paragraph three where you can make your own google map. They look kind of like these: Here you can get a geographical depiction of Matt's drunken walkabout. While here, you can see the general vicinity of Mike's home in Taichung City, and here you can min carta over bloggvanner. You see how useful this tool is?

So I made my own map.
Ver my map of downtown Santiago . I'll probably be editing and expanding it as time passes.

Any other bloggers up for making a Santiago or other city map? Please send me the link if you do your own :) It seems they could be quite useful.

Downtown Santiago needs an English Library

Downtown Santiago really needs an English library. I have books to donate, but no one to donate them to. (I definitely want to be able to have access to them after loaning them.) The National Library will accept them, but only in the regular section, not in the part where you can take the books home, préstamo a domicilio. :( I've thought about donating a book in English to publimetro, but I doubt they would lend it. I have this idea it would disappear. But I should stop being so pajera and try it out and find out. I would donate most of my books in English if I thought people would eventually be able to check them out. So I'm going to donate The DaVinci Code and see if they actually make it available for checking out and take it from there. Meanwhile I have quite the stack of books.

Group post. Travel story: Bena, Minnesota

Okay, so this is a work-travel story. Perhaps we could call it a business trip. hahahahaha. So, one of the summers I was working road construction in Northern Minnesota, I was assigned as a flagger on Hwy 2. During this job, I spent a couple days in Bena, Minnesota. (Check out this link that shows their median incomes. I was blown away when I read this. I shouldn't be surprised I spose, but I was. All I can say is I hope they hunt and gather for food.) I was flagging like 16-hour days which could be a little dull, but this town was a great place to flag. It's 70% Native American, so it´s a totally different culture nestled within Northern Minnesota. (It's on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation.)

I spent one whole day standing in the middle of town, stopping people and letting them go through when it was clear. Across the street was the gas station/mini market. At like 9am, somebody from the rez's brown buick broke down right in front of me. They spent the ENTIRE DAY trying to fix it. Something like 4 different people tried to figure out how to get it running. They left the car, came back, left the car, came back. Watching them sort of eased the long moments of boredom that I often experienced. At the end of the day, they ended up pushing the car across the highway and down a little road. I thought about how I would have handled the situation so differently in my town. And it never occurred to me at like 9am when the car broke down that it was going to be a day-long project. It was nice to have a little entertainment during the day and to see a slower-paced way of living.

Working on the Leech Lake Rez sparked my curiousity about the Native Americans living in and close to my home town. However, I moved to Chile soon after that. I'm thinking of perhaps taking some Ojibwe language classes when I move back, just to learn a bit more about their culture.


Check Kyle's post for a list of links to more travel stories.

God does not play dice with the universe...

he lets us do that.

Why I came and why we will leave... (a belated response to the group post)

So I'm a bit behind on the group post, hehehe. When everyone posted, I was on vacation in Iquique (the sports capital of Chile, believe it or not).

At the age of 12 I got the travel bug, and I decided I was going to see the whole freaking world. One way to start seeing the world was to be an AFS student for a year. I decided to do this as a gap year before college. At 17, I was fed up with my little town and the snow and cold and tameness of it all, and decided to move my travels up a year or two and go for 6 months rather than a year. (I later regretted not choosing to stay the whole year.) I knew I would miss my friends, but I really wanted to travel. My heart was set on living in Puerto Rico for a semester where they couldn't possibly place me in a home far from the beach. Apparently I wasn't the only one who decided to go to the Reggaeton capital of the world, because by the time I applied, there weren't enough spots left in the program. All the families had been taken. :( So back to the drawing board. Brazil called my attention, but I wanted to learn Spanish and be somewhere warm and near the beach. That year there was a Chilean AFS student in my high school who I was friends with. She urged me to go to Chile telling me about Chilean carretes and how fun it is there, etc. So I gave up my dream of a year-round summer and chose to come to Chile, and I was off. It was a great time.

I came back to Chile for a month my sophomore year of college and visited my host fam. and traveled around Chile. My host father pointed out a masters program at the University he works at; it was a good program and inexpensive. I bore that in mind and came back in 2004 to do the program. After a year living in Valpo I met my husband. I finished school last year and we are currently waiting for me to be eligible to apply for permanencia definitiva so as to apply for V's immigrant visa to the US of A. We've got a while yet. Meanwhile, I'm teaching English.

Why we will leave: I want to go back to the States so V has a chance to live abroad, and get to know my country. I can't wait to travel vicariously through him and see my town, state and country through his eyes. Reverse cultural shock can be quite enriching! I also am excited to live near my family again for a while and watch my nephew and niece grow up and be a part of my family's lives again, beyond Skype. We are planning on installing ourselves in Minnesota, but you never know. Perhaps someday we'll move back to Chile. Or to Europe or Indonesia. Who knows?

I'm not against living in Chile, but I'm not a huge fan of Santiago. I like smaller towns and cities. I've liked living here however, I don't know how I'd feel if I knew I would be living here forever and ever.

To read the everyone else's posts, go to Kyle's post on the matter.

aphoristic thought 2

It frustrates me to no end that I'm mortal.

Interestingly, frustrate is a synonym of crucify, at least in wordreference.com it is.

Anyone have a turistel they could lend me?

I'm specifically looking for the turistel for el norte. Anyone have one they would lend me for a week or two?

Updates

I've updated EFL blog: Chile, for anyone interested, though I still need to find a way to put documents on there that users can download. And I've also started again on my Chilensis blog.

I'm not a slob, I'm a horizontal organizer.

All these years I've thought I was a slob. It's not true. I'm just a horizontal organizer in a vertically organizing world. It's a sad plight.

Check out this essay "A plea for the Horizontally Organized".
He also has a fantastic essay on Structured Procrastination. This is how I came across his website. I stumbled upon his procrastination essay first. I'll give you one guess what I was doing when I came across it.
I'm particularly fond of his logic in his "On Becoming Bilingual" essay. Might I add he has an incredibly intuitive essay on Procrastination and Perfectionism.

I highly recommend http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/ for your reading pleasure. Pure Genius.

Dude, John Perry rocks. He needs a fan club on facebook. I would totally start it, but would it be lame to be his only fan if it occurs to no one else to be a fan? Or would it be incredibly funny and original to be the only fan in someone's fan club? hahahaha. That makes me want to start a fan club for some random friend on facebook. Hilarious.

By the way, does anyone else identify with any of these essays? Any other perfectionist procrastinators or horizontal organizers out there?

Money does grow on trees

It's not that money doesn't grow on trees, it does. The problem is figuring out which trees it DOES grow on and climbing up and picking it. The other problem is getting over the fear of falling out of the tree and breaking your neck.

in search of my money tree(s)...

LensCrafters es como el forro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My e-complaint that I sent to the Attorney General of Florida, Bill McCollum:

“I bought some lenses and frames at the Sawgrass Mills Mall Lenscrafters store on March 6th, 2008. The scotchgard coating on the lenses has wrinkled and thus I see blurrily through them now. They are ruined. I called Lenscrafters to have them replaced and they told me I would have to pay half the price of the lenses replacement because, as Gonzalo, the general manager told me, "Lenscrafters doesn't make the lenses." Apparently this means they don't guarantee their replacement. My question to you is, how is this legal? I live in Santiago, Chile, and here in the "third world", we have a consumer rights agency that protects us consumers from these kinds of sales practices. Despite what the companies here tell us about their policies, they have a legal responsibility to repair, replace, or refund faulty products up to 6 months after the sale. Since the United States of America is the "first world", I thought we might have a policy like that good for a year.

Is there a law that protects me against this sort of sales trick? The 30 day moneyback guarantee is all "show" to try to get the consumer to trust the company. And then the real guarantee, the one I'm counting on, ends up being a sales trick. I buy one pair of lenses, and I'm forced to buy the second pair at 50%. That sounds more like a sales tactic than a guarantee.”

I've forgotten the last paragraph of the e-complaint, but that basically sums it up.

(I love this third world/first world terminology. It’s so great at provoking shame and it works in both directions, pitting one theoretical world against another. E.g. “Here in the third world, consumers are better protected than there in the first world.” “Once again, we got typical third-world customer service.”)

If you only have “about an hour” (which is never about an hour, it’s more like a day) to buy glasses, you may be in a hurry and not read the back of the receipt that says the guarantee is horseshit after 30 days. You awe the consumer with the 30-day absolute, no-questions-asked complete refund guarantee. And we don’t even ask about what happens after that. I’ll tell you, your lenses break and you have to pay HALF of their replacement. What a great “buy-one,-be-forced-to-buy-a-second-pair-at-half-price sales model”. Kudos to whoever thought that one up.

My recipe for bringing down the box store:
Everyone go buy a couple pairs of lenses from Lenscrafters and then return them during the 30 day money back guarantee.

Did David Browne just wake up one day and say, “I’m going to sell crappy products. When they break, the consumer will have to pay to get them replaced.”? So ripping people off is the secret to success. And what's with the super Christian website? Geesh. I'll tell you a secret: find some self respect.

Any hackers out there with time to kill, please go to http://www.lenscrafters.com/
and crash their site please. Pretty please, with cherries on top.

So after googling LensCrafters (what I should have done in the first place), I found other customers who weren’t pleased with the store.
Here
ripoffreport
LensCrafters or how I wasted a whole weekend
a report of LensCrafters on a forum
as well as a Sarah Palin, a LensCrafters model, and
on the BARF forum
Suck it, LensCrafters
why I think LensCrafters sucks
I guess working for them is no fun either
LensCrafters sucks ass.
and it can eat dick too
I'm not the only one who wanted to know who is the current CEO of LensCrafters.
Here's an interesting tidbit I got off wikipedia: LensCrafters maintains "corporate headquarters in Mason, Ohio (near Cincinnati), along with Sunglass Hut International; but, in fact, both firms are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Italian-based Luxottica. Luxottica also owns Pearle, Target Optical, JCPenney Optical, Sears Optical and EyeMed Vision Care."
I must concede that some customers are satisfied; apparently this doughy, middle-aged guy liked the store.

I've learned in the future I need to do my homework BEFORE I buy glasses. Cuak! This has not been my customer service month in either the "first" or "third" worlds.

Your average customer service in Chile

debo reconocer que en comparisión, EEUU, por lo general tiene mejor servicio, porque, a menudo te topay con alguien que te quiere ayudar, y INCLUSO que se pasa ayudándote, porque sí no más.

Nuestra experiencia comprando 2 pasajes en avión, lamentablemente, es MUY TÍPICA acá. Todo el mundo que vive en Chile ha tenido que tramitar weas de esta manera. Es una paja, pero qué se puede hacer? (ojala tuviera un junior, yo cacho que me sería mejor que una nana)


Pasos para comprar dos pasajes en avión Santiago – Iquique:


1) V trató de comprar los pasajes en lan.com con su tarjeta Ripley
2) no funcionó porque no tenía la clave de su tarjeta Ripley
3) se metió a Internet para encontrar un clave
4) allí dice llamar a 600 600 02 02
5) el número no funciona
6) llama de nuevo
7) el número no funciona
8) repita pasos 6 y 7 hasta aburrirse
9) V vuelve al trabajo
10) yo repito pasos 1-7.
11) voy a Ripley
12) me dan mi clave
13) voy a la casa a comprar pasajes
14) hay un problema con el pago a través de la tarjeta Ripley
15) Vuelvo a Ripley ya que el numero del servicio al consumidor no funciona, y tampoco el otro número para comprar
16) en Ripley me dan el número *super secreto* de Ripley, el cual es: 6941000 extensión 1755, por si alguien más no ha podido contactar con esta espléndida empresa
17) llamo el número super secreto y CONTESTAN ALTIRO
18) me arreglan la situación de no poder pagar la wea.
19) intento comprar pasajes de nuevo
20) no funciona el modo de pago
21) llamo a Ripley
22) me aseguran que no es culpa de la tarjeta, que mejor me contacto con Lanchile
23) llamo a Lanchile. decido comprar los pasajes por telefono
24) me sale 20 luka más para cada pasaje
25) llamo a Lanchile para hablar con la gerencia de Internet (ya que la señorita no me pudo conectar con la otra area)
26) marco la opción de hablar con la gente de pago por Internet, o algo por el estilo. hablo con la señorita. Necesita mi número de confimación, la cual nunca anoté porque no había pagado nada aún. No puedo retroceder en el sitio de Internet. Nos despidimos.
28) me meto a la pagina de lanchile de nuevo y hago otra reserva en otro horario porque ya han subido las tarifas y estan agotados los pasajes de vuelta para la hora que queríamos. (porque entre V y yo ya teníamos como 6 pares de pasajes de ida y vuelta reservados, pero no se podía entrar a “mi cuenta” ni ná para cachar que la wea estaba reservada) Asi que, nuevamente hago reserva, esta vez para dos semanas más tarde que lo que habiamos hablado.
29) llamo nuevamente, le doy el código de reserva, no se puede pagar con tarjeta Ripley. Me da la dirección de la oficina de Lanchile más cercana.
30) Imprimo hoja con la reserva y voy a Lanchile a completar la compra.
31) Espero unos diez minutos para que me atienden. En quince minutos más me tiene los pasajes.
32) Voy a Ripley y pago la cuenta Ripley.

Y todo esto en solamente 4 horas de mi tiempo.

A todo esto, debo decir, que toda la gente que me atendió fue buena onda conmigo. Solo que no se debe demorar 4 horas para comprar dos pasajes en avión.

Comentario de V al respeto: “Fue más fácil desbloquear el iphone.”

25 things about me

so I've received this forward a bit and here are mine:

1. I want to start a business that sells quotidian things (cosas cotidianas), like food, clothing, cleaning products, what you need to live, basically. I imagine it like the old almacenes from the 1800s and beginning of the 1900s. Really good quality products, being as close to the source as possible, polluting as little as possible, as thrifty as possible. Clothing that lasts 20 years. Perhaps I'll eventually put myself out of business, because people won't have to buy any more clothing.

2. I perhaps will learn from the indigenous people, like for example, the Incas were masters at making fabrics. (White) people used to make there own clothing too, in the United States. President John Adams sported homespun threads.

3. Estoy peinando la muñeca con el tema este. Se los juro. Llevo 5 años pensando en esto. He pelado harto cable ya. Asi que cambiamos el tema. jajajaja, o intentamos...

4. I have sooooooooooooooooooo many business ideas and writing ideas, I could give them away. My aunt just told me the other day that Jack Londan gave story ideas to F. Scott Fitzgerald.

5. I can tell I'm a writer because I could never decided what I wanted to study...in college I took some RANDOM classes including C++ computer programing. I wish I would have known then that my interest was more experiential, than applicable. Duh. I almost bombed the dang class. And I love doing things for the experience of it, if for nothing else: trying out weevil-filled oatmeal, for example. YUCK! I didn't know there were weevils (little grain beetles) when I bought it. Cutting costs can be risky sometimes. I bought the oatmeal wholesale, for half the price per kilo as they sell in the supermarket where I shop. Probably won't do that again...but you never know!

6. I wish the gym I recently enrolled in had a hip-hop class. I would like to be part of a hip-hop troop some day.

7. I want a garden.

8. And fruit trees.

9. I have pastoral dreams.

10. Because I'm from a small town.

11. I think weed should be legal to grow for personal use. And hemp too.

12. Reading the book "Rich dad, poor dad" has almost made me go conservative (republican). The only bastion of right-wing thought I cling to as truth is the idea that education should be free for all, and food too - for those who study. Okay, so, I'm still a democrat, never so mean, but mostly because I think there are so many soul-less business people in this world who take advantage of workers and have no sense of ethics. It's sickening. All they think about is money, the dumbfucks. Could we be a little more creative please? And maybe enjoy ourselves now and then? Rather than chasing the buck non-stop...all the time. Until you die.

13. I'm writing an EFL book specifically for teaching English in Chile...we'll see if I ever finish.

14. If I had a restaurant in my home town, I would have “fictional things” on the menú…(to make it a bit more literary.) For example, The Up-North Roll: a sushi roll with walleye and raspberries, rolled in wild rice and drizzled with a mix of soy sauce and maple syrup. hahahahahahahaha. And the best part is that I might even try to make it.

15. I could also have a crappie roll and a Northern roll. eeewwww. I only say eeewww, because supposedly Northern tastes nasty, though I’ve never tried it.

16. I want to go home.

17. And have a huge pumpkin patch.

18. And prepare venison cazuela, with deer my brothers have shot, and pumpkin from my patch.

19. And start a blues band.

20. with Vuko on lead guitar.

21. I’d be on piano and vocals.

22. I’d have to take voice lessons again.

23. I like singing.

24. I dream about babies alot.

25. I refuse to believe my biological clock is ticking.

26. No, we aren’t planning on having a baby any time soon, so stop asking. or don't.

EFL Blog: Chile

I've started yet another blog, this one of the EFL variety. The idea is to share resources, tips, whathaveyou. If you are interested in contributing, let me know.

Tip of the day: Use America's Finest News Source as a reading for your intermediate/advanced students. Chileans appreciate humor. Who doesn't?

Jacques Torres ate my heart out!!

So the brownies aren't even done yet. But they smell so good I think I'm going to faint. The batter was spectacular! And actually the brownie mix is reasonably priced at $12.95 (that is if you live near the store...I got it as a gift from my mommy). They should import this brownie mix!!!! Specifically for the American expat community here in Chilito. It would sell like soy sauce does in China, like vino bigoteado in the Plaza Echaurren. Eeewww! Okay, I grossed myself out. I think I just ruined the post.

Now that the brownies are almost ready, and have a REALLY SHORT life expectancy, poor things, here, I figure out how to plagiarize this recipe.

Me, on the chocolate business:
Okay, so included in the brownie mix was 1 1/2 cups (300 grams) of REALLY good chocolate. Here in Chile, that runs me 4.500 pesos ($7.25)-at the grocery store. The mix costs $12.95. I think that leaves it clear that Torres isn't making money off selling brownie mix. He's making it selling chocolate, and, perhaps off these hummers. I would love getting into this industry. You need to cut out the middle man and get to the source. Check out this article which I have already posted, but I'm posting it again.

Food budget in Chile

So Kyle's last post is about how much she spends on groceries a month in Chile. She said she was getting emails from people asking her that. I started commenting and realized I should just write my own post. Anyone else who's interested in blogging on your food budget in Chile (or elsewhere, I suppose), please do. We could make this topic into a group post if people are interested. I'll post the links to the other blogs on my entry.

So I'll be guesstimating. But I have been saving my receipts for the last 4-5 years, and when I get around to looking at them and figuring out what my food budget has been I will probably get back to you all. Back in Valpo, I easily spent 80.000-100.000 a month in groceries, but V and I were drinking lots of milk and eating lots of yogurt in those days. And we used to eat tons of chicken and beef. Now that I've gone flexitarian, I'm probably spending between 50.000-70.000 a month in groceries. Although I will know better if I ever organize my finances.

As Theresa in Mérida commented on Kyle's blog, this number will depend on what people eat. So to give you an ideea: I will cook cazuela de ave, for example, or porotos granados (apparently called cranberry beans?) (1500 the kilo-desgranados, peeled) and those dishes will last us like 3 days. Plus, if say, the green beans are out-of-season, I won't put them in the cazuela. I mostly use in-season food, which makes my cooking better and more economical. Another thing that makes my cooking much more economical, is that I cook lots of Chilean dishes, so I almost always use Chilean ingredients: zapallo (300 pesos the chunk), porotos granados, porotos verdes (can't remember), choclo humero (10 in 1000 pesos), etc. I even use typical Chilean ingredients in my own concoctions.

Also, when I get a chance, I do my shopping at the vega, which makes fruit, veggie, chicken shopping a bit more economical. And when I don't have time, I go to a market/vega that's a bit closer to home.

I also, am not a fan of chicken. I will eat it, if that's what's for lunch or dinner (hence flexitarian), but I think about the fact that it spent it's whole life in a cage and that it's been injected with hormones, and I would rather eat more pesticide-covered corn and pumpkin, rather than hormone-injected, cage-grown chicken. (Let's call a spade a spade.)

Other foods we eat a lot of and their current prices in Chilean pesos:
we eat bread (pan pita integral, 800) and avocado (1500 the kilo), or oatmeal (1300 the kilo), bananas (450 the kilo), yogurt (300 pesos for like 150 grams, I believe), fruit,
mote con huesillos or without huesillos (dried full-sized peaches, about 3000-4000 the kilo). I also like to have mote (can't remember the price) with coconut milk (1,100 the can) and pure maple syrup. Yummy. Speaking of, I go through a lot of coconut milk. (The maple syrup was given to me by my mom who was just in Chile. I don't buy maple syrup here.) Sarotti chocolate - 1400 for 100 grams, but waaaay more satisfying than Sahne-Nuss (1000 pesos for 180 grams). Although I still get a Sahne-Nuss fix from time-to-time. I do wish my supermarket would get this brand to try it out. I like getting my products as directly from the source as possible.

We also eat a fair amount of nuts. I just bought 2 kilos of cashews for 16,000 pesos. We eat almonds too, but I can't remember what they cost.

We eat lots of quinoa too, although not lately. (Over a year ago I bought 25 kilos for 25,000 pesos from a dealer in Parque Forestal - there was a bicycle culture festival, and people were selling things like quinoa and vegetarian empanadas). Normally quinoa costs (for quinoa negra) around 2000 pesos for half a kilo, if I'm not mistaken. You can get it at the tostudaria talca. Its uber-expensive at the grocery store, like 2000+ pesos for 200 grams of white quinoa. But 25,000 pesos for 25 kilos is quite the deal, even if we don't finish those last 5 kilos before they go bad.

We also eat pasta, beef, rice, beans-black and tórtola (perhaps around 2000 the kilo), garbanzo beans, crackers (300 for 180 grams or so), quesillo (around 1000), olive oil (maybe 5000 the liter?), regular oil, and lots of spices. When the corn's not in season, I get frozen corn (2000 the kilo?). These last prices I don't remember as well.

That's all I can think of for the moment. I'm sure we eat other foods as well.

Other gringas on their food budgets:

Kyle (the person who started the topic)
Katina

terribly terribly cynical. so cynical I'm laughing

I think Chile is REALLY getting to me. Because I now find morbid things HILARIOUS. That is the trademark of the Chilean sense of humor, cracking jokes at funerals (even if it's just a light one), breeching topics unsuitable for your grandma's ears, right in front of her, humorously subtitling the most dramatic part of a movie about the fall of one of the (if not the) most notorious people of contemporary history. I swear they have a BLACK sense of humor. Basically it's all about making fun of anything and everything that you shouldn't. P.C. is non-existent. In fact, its almost like the less p.c. you are, the funnier it is. (I'm going to be a pc-wreck if I ever go back to the States. My family and friends will shun me.)

Anyhoo, I saw this article on the Santiago metro news station and then googled it to find out if it's true. So I'm going to end this blog right now. Bye.

EFL/ESL Question

Has anybody found a lesson plan that helps your Spanish speaking students stop using "a personal"? I have a couple students who use the article "a" prolifically in front of people's names. While this is normal in Spanish, it's not in English. I'll probably just end up looking up the rules to using "a personal" in Spanish and then unteaching them to my students. But thought I'd ask any of you if you've found (internet) material on this.

my thought on Obama's "beauty"

I've heard and read a lot of people mention that Obama won the presidency because he is black. Or that's the first thing they say or notice about him. The people who think that or have nothing more to say about Obama [than that he's black] are missing the beauty of Obama's campaign: his intelligence, his innovation and his ability to bring people together and create a vision that includes all Americans, and probably non-Americans as well. (Because the rest of the world is influenced by the U.S. president.) He used innovative campaign methods which, it seems they are trying in his presidency. The "fourth" power of government, the media is being democratized and Obama's government wants to take advantage of this, in his Youtube presidency. That's part of the beauty of him being president. Who cares he's black?

Food and diet: I'm a flexitarian!

I have a name. According to the Mayo Clinic website, I'm a flexitarian. Flexitarians are defined as people who "primarily follow a plant-based diet but occasionally eat small amounts of meat, poultry or fish." Although "occasionally eat small amounts of meat, poultry or fish" translates into a couple times a week (when V cooks), and then gorging on a potpourri of animal cadavers when I stumble upon a Chilean barbecue. But I cook primarily veggies and grains and I eat lots of fruit, chocolate and coconut milk, too. Ñami.

Check out this tool! This is really cool. I did it and found out my daily calorie goal is 2000 calories. Pretty cool.

And here are five different food pyramids, depending on your taste/culture.

The Mayo Clinic rocks.

But my fave food pyramid is this one, from the integrative nutrition catalog:



Perhaps the most complete food pyramid known to mankind.
If I were to formally study nutrition, I would do it with them, integrative nutrition.

Aphoristic thought

I always get lost in the anecdotes.

Inglés con piernas: an impossible market

So I've been teaching English in Chilito for a bit and have gotten the feeling from time to time, from potential students that they don't want English class per se; they want an English class with a pretty, young rubia...which they hope could lead to more. The other day, one of the street vendors who sells me fruit asked how much I charge for an English class and told me he would pay me five times that for just one class with me. The proposition sort of amused/shocked me. I just said "que va" and went on my way. Honestly. If I wanted to be a prostitute, I would have chosen that profession and what's more, I would shoot for earning more than $100 an hour because soon enough you are old, and then what?

The type of clientel that want Inglés con piernas are pretty easy to distinguish after a couple weeks in the English-teaching business. And there is such a demand for English in Chile that it's really unnecessary to teach these kind of students unless you choose to. I avoid them because they are a pain in the butt and trying to teach them only leads to misunderstandings, because they are not in it to learn English.

But anyway, there seems to be a HUGE market here in Chile for Inglés con piernas. Unfortunately for the potential customers, I don't know any gringas who are interested. Huge demand, no supply.

So here's a good challenge for any creative businesswomen/men out there. How do you provide this service? And more specifically, who do you get to provide this service? Perhaps a café con piernas could offer this to distinguish itself in the market?

Another year or two in Santiago...cuak!

So looks like we'll be in Chilito for awhile longer. Our plans had been to move back to the States sometime in the upcoming months, preferably at the beginning of the Northern Hemisphere's summer, but that won't be happening. I went to the U.S. Embassy today to apply for V's immigrant visa and was shot down, because you need to be a permanent resident to apply. I feel like a permanent resident in Chile. After all I've been here for almost five years. Unfortunately, feeling like a permanent resident and being one aren't the same thing. My Chilean carné needs to say "permanent resident" or something to that effect on the back of it. Así que cagué! And I could have applied for permanent residence in September, because after having two consecutive years of student visas and finishing your studies here in Chile, you are also eligible to apply for permanent residence, but you have to do it before your student visa expires. Mine expired September 12th, so I traveled to Mendoza to get a tourist visa because I didn't get all the paperwork together before the 12th to apply for my temporary visa. But I didn't know all of this was going to be so complicated, so I didn't even look into the details of it all. Plus I've had a hyper-busy 6 months: I finished my thesis in September defending it on September 11th, then V, C and I went to Diaguitas for el dieciocho. Then I went to the States for a week to get some paperwork done there, came back to Chile and started teaching English, planning our wedding our honeymoon and my family's trip to Chile. And we just got back from our honeymoon the other day. So just today I finally got the paperwork together to go turn it in and was met with a bit of a surprise.

Bang. Bang. She shot me down.
Bang. Bang. I hit the ground.
Bang. Bang. The embassy official shot me down.

A friend of V's had told us in October I needed to have permanent residence to apply for the immigrant visa from here, but other people had said I didn't, which may have been true back in the day, but isn't true now. Anyway, by October it was too late to apply for permanent residence anyway, because my student visa had already expired. I also could have applied for a temporary visa years ago, but didn't know it would have been easier that way.

Un año más, qué mas da?
Un año más, cuánto se han ido?
Un año más, qué más da?
Cuánto se han ido ya?

So anyway, it takes me a while to digest things. I'm not exstatic about being in Santiago another year. Probably if I still lived in Valpo I wouldn't mind being here longer, at least not as much. It's especially annoying since they've started constructing a building right next door and the drilling sound hasn't stopped all morning. I thought we were in economic crisis?!?!

...but on the good side, now that I'm done with school and the marriage-planning is over, I will actually have time to hang out with friends more. Yay! Some of the best time spent in life is hanging out with friends. It's been quite the introverted last four years, having soooo much to study and I've spent most of the little free time I've had with V, obviously. So I've seen much less of my friends then I'd like to.

I finally am working again in what will probably be one of my main careers in life (teaching) and will actually be excited to work for a year without having to uproot and move back to the States. I must admit I was not looking forward to leaving my capoeira group, which is actually planning a trip to Bahia, Brazil this (Southern Hemisphere) winter. Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! I missed the last one because I had to study... but we'll see if a trip to Brazil pans out for me. I do have more important priorities like spending time with my hubby and establishing a career path for myself, as well as making money to fund the trip.

I also very much like Chile, and to be honest, even Santiago. (Although Valpo's way better.) I think my biggest disappointments are 1) I won't be hanging with my family as soon as I had planned. 2) I think it would be so great for V to get to know MY country and especially to get an outside perspective on his own culture. In general, I think living abroad is really healthy for people because it gives you the chance to see that culture is relative, even your own, especially your own. This is really hard to see when you've never lived within another culture. It's such a great opportunity, but it will have to wait awhile. Good thing V's not been too interested in studying English. Looks like he won't need it for a while.

The visa track I am now on is waiting for my temporary visa. Once I've had that for a year, I can apply for my permanent residence. Then I can apply for V's visa. But who knows? Perhaps by then we'll have two babies, a dog, a couple cars, a house and decide to just stay.

The lady at the embassy said I could go to the States and do the paperwork from there, but we'd have to be apart. Plus I heard that's a large pain in the butt, and takes even longer.

Meanwhile, I spose I'll keep blogging.

What would Jesus do?

Dude, the SuperChristians who get together on Paseo Ahumada to preach the word of God should be arrested. Their sound system sucks, so walking by them means declaring war on my eardrums. They yell puras weás into the microphone, polluting public space with the terrible sound waves they produce. They should be forced to get rid of their sound system at the very least. I think its so stupid that these superchristians go to only poor neighborhoods to stand on the corners and rant about salvation. As if the rich were all perfect Christians. Of course if they did that in the Barnechea the police would be called and they would be gone in no time at all. I wonder if complaining to police would help. Or maybe I should just approach the superchristians and tell them how I feel. Since they are soo approachable psychotically screaming into the microphone. What would I say?..."Could you please shut up? I lose my faith just coming within earshot of you guys." o algo por el estilo...

while I'm on the Christian note...at Iguazu Falls I saw a superChristian wearing a t-shirt with a quote from the book of John. While the Bible has some pretty good verses, this wasn't one of them. It said something like, He loved you before you loved him. And then there was a logo about some Christian sports league on the front of the t-shirt. And I decided it would be fun to print a t-shirt with a quote on the back of it from the book of Revelations, a book Hunter S. Thompson periodically quoted. And of course, the front of could have a sketch of this popular American writer. If I remember correctly, he quoted dark, apocalptic verses as well as very dramatic literary ones kind of like this one in Revelations: ^"17And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone." He found some good ones, the bible is probably plumb full of them.

Politics and Self-esteem

The election of Obama made my self-esteem go up. hahahaha. I was very surprised with myself when I realized this. It's hard being abroad and being from the States, (in some ways). I spent most of Bush's two terms abroad. During his first term, I was in Spain a year where many Spaniards personally blamed me for Bush's election. I AM that powerful. It was all my doing.

Then I came to Chile. I actually voted against Bush from Chile (I did my part), but he was re-elected and I've spent all of his second term in Chile. Chileans realize most Statesians abroad don't like Bush, so I haven't been personally blamed for him being in office, but I still have felt I've had to explain that half of Statesians are freaking idiots for electing him a second time. Duh. But now, Obama is president-elect. I don't have to explain a thing. I'm actually content with our president-elect, as is most of the world, (or so it seems). And while he only got like 50% of the vote, he won!!! And that's what counts. I'm looking forward to him taking office.

And I still can't get over that my self-esteem has gone up. Really, this shouldn't affect that since I'm not personally responsible for either presidents' elections.